Case Study

The development of molecular electrochemical biosensors and point-of-care biodevices for medical diagnosis, prognosis, surveillance and therapeutic monitoring.

Dr Pedro Estrela is an Associate Professor at the Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering and Director of the Centre for Biosensors, Bioelectronics and Biodevices (C3Bio). His work focuses on the development of molecular electrochemical biosensors and point-of-care biodevices for medical diagnosis, prognosis, surveillance and therapeutic monitoring.

Miniaturizable and multiplexable sensors have been developed for the detection of ions, small molecules, oligonucleotides, proteins, bacteria and cells in complex media such as blood and urine. These sensors, coupled with microfluidics and on-chip electronics can simultaneously detected a range of molecular biomarkers and therapeutic drugs in a lab-on-chip approach.

A particular focus has been on cancer diagnosis and management, particularly prostate cancer. Dr Estrela was the Coordinator of the Marie Curie Initial Training Network PROSENSE devoted to prostate cancer diagnosis. Another particular interest is on disease management systems / companion diagnostics for infectious diseases, looking at point-of-care devices that can diagnose, monitor disease progression, detect co-infection with other infections and assess therapeutic interventions for a personalised medicine approach.